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The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
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Women's Platform Limited

Charity no. 108453 Company no. 41273 Date registered. 19/04/2022

Public benefits

Purpose 1: The advancement of equality and human rights for women and girls The direct benefits which flow from this purpose include strengthened awareness and understanding across society of how human rights and equality for women and girls are essential for society, increased awareness of the international human rights framework and mechanisms

for women’s rights and its relevance to Northern Ireland, and improved capacity to take account of human rights and equality in shaping society and building a peaceful Northern Ireland, in particular among women and girls. These benefits contribute to strengthening gender equality and a society based on human rights and equality for everyone, which benefits women and girls by addressing gender based discrimination in all areas of life. Strengthened capacity and awareness also directly benefits women and girls individually by increasing their agency and opportunities to engage in society. Purpose 2: The promotion of equality, diversity and community development The direct benefits which flow from this purpose include building capacity of women’s organisations, including women and girls involved in these organisations, to engage in promotion of equality and diversity, creating opportunities for women and girls to engage in community development and public life, and creating an evidence base that supports work to promote equality and diversity across society. These benefits combine to create a support structure for promoting equality and diversity in all areas of life, with an emphasis on strengthening the ability of women and girls to participate in community development. This directly benefits women and girls, by increasing their opportunities to participate in society, and by making gender equality a more strategic consideration in community development. This indirectly benefits everyone in Northern Ireland by contributing to society where everyone can participate equitably in community development and public life. Purpose 1: These benefits can be demonstrated and quantified through evaluation of the charity's work, which is integrated into all processes. Mechanisms for evaluation include surveys with project participants, monitoring of policy and decision making processes, and in particular consultation responses to policies, strategies and Bills, as well as assessment of reports monitoring compliance with international human rights treaties and mechanisms. Purpose 2: These benefits can be demonstrated and quantified through robust evaluation processes integrated across the organisation’s work, including surveys with project participants, analysis of societal norms and practices, and assessment of reports monitoring women's representation and participation in public life. Benefits can also be demonstrated through collation of women’s and girls’ lived experience, which forms a core part of the organisation’s work and is demonstrated through reports published on its website. The purposes of our charity are in line with equality legislation as specified in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, as they are focused on securing equality between women and men by ending gender based discrimination, which includes strengthening the capacity of women and girls to participate in community development and peacebuilding. We do not anticipate that the purposes cause harm. It is possible that individuals may have strong personal feelings about our work; however, we believe this can be addressed through being accessible and inclusive, and emphasising our commitment to human rights and equality for all. We believe the benefits to women and girls as a population group outweigh any harm. Therefore, there is no harm arising from either Purpose 1 or Purpose 2. The beneficiaries of the organisation are women and girls in Northern Ireland, including women and girls of all ages and backgrounds. All people in Northern Ireland indirectly benefit from our purposes as our aim is to promote an equitable society that upholds human rights and equality for everyone living in Northern Ireland and enables everyone to contribute to community development and peacebuilding. Our work supports organisations across the women’s sector in Northern Ireland and contributes to building capacity of both organisations and individual women and girls to work towards gender equality across society. There is no private benefit flowing from our purposes. Staff employed by the organisation will be appropriately remunerated and will accrue skills and experience, while the organisation’s work includes organising events and engaging catering services for this purpose. However, this forms part of running the organisation and carrying out the objects, and is therefore incidental.

What your organisation does

Women's Platform Limited is a membership organisation working to promote the implementation of international human rights standards in Northern Ireland, and in particular the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), in line with commitments the UK has made to international human rights treaties.

Established in 1988 as the Northern Ireland link to the European Women's Lobby, Women's Platform Limited also represents women and girls in Northern Ireland at the European and international level, including at the UN. Women's Platform Limited is in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the UN. The work of Women's Platform Limited locally focuses on building the capacity of members and the wider women's sector to utilise international human rights standards and mechanisms for women's rights in their own practice and work to promote gender equality in Northern Ireland. Women's Platform Limited also shares evidence and good practice from international networks locally, and works with members to amplify the voice of women and girls in Northern Ireland internationally. In addition, Women's Platform Limited contributes evidence to consultation processes and engages with policy and decision makers to highlight human rights commitments and evidence of good practice on realising gender equality.

The charity’s classifications

  • The advancement of citizenship or community development
  • The advancement of human rights, conflict resolution or reconciliation or the promotion of religious or racial harmony or equality and diversity

Who the charity helps

  • Women

How the charity works

  • Community development
  • Cross-border/cross-community
  • Education/training
  • Gender
  • Human rights/equality
  • Research/evaluation

Charitable purposes

1. The advancement of equality and human rights for women and girls (as set out in the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the European Convention on Human Rights and subsequent United Nations and European conventions and declarations), in political, economic, social, cultural, civic and any other fields, for women in Northern Ireland, by all or any of the following means: (i) educating the public about human rights and gender inequality issues; (ii) promoting respect for human rights and gender equality among individuals, governments, corporations and other institutions; (iii) promoting public support for the protection of human rights; (iv) commenting on proposed gender discrimination legislation and providing technical and policy advice to statutory bodies and other agencies, organisations and institutions; (v) contributing to the sound administration of human rights law; (vi) promoting enforcement of domestic human rights law by the state and its institutions; (vii) international advocacy of human rights; (viii) research into human rights issues. 2. The promotion of equality, diversity and community development by all or any of the following means: (i) provide and maintain a Forum where women's organisations can join together to exchange views, share common issues and information and create a collective voice on specific issues of concern to women in Northern Ireland; (ii) provide strategic and practical support to women's organisations operating in Northern Ireland; (iii) design, promote, implement and evaluate strategies and develop and carry through action plans concerned with improving the economic, social, cultural, health and civic lives of women in Northern Ireland; (iv) promote study and research, set priorities and develop and influence policy and practice in the fields of gender equality, diversity and community development

Governing document

Memorandum and Articles

Other name


  • 12 Trustees
  • N/A Employees
  • N/A Volunteers

Contact details

Public address

  • Jonna Monaghan, 6 Mount Charles, Belfast, BT7 1NZ

Trustee board

Trustee
Emma Osborne
Jeanette Thornton
Louise Coyle
Annemarie Mcvicker
Siobhán Harding
Karen Devlin
Alexandra Brennan
Alexa Moore
Ms Maxine Murphy-Higgins
Ms Naomi English
Ms Beverly Simpson
Ms Aislinn Fanning

List of regions

  • In Northern Ireland